Nothing’s April Fool’s Joke Product Is A Laugh At Best And An Insult At Worst
TL;DR
- Nothing is “launching” a new set of wired headphones, cheekily called the Nothing Ear (3.5mm).
- The product is an April Fool’s joke with a 50-meter cable and a “beautifully inconvenient” design.
- This joke might not land well if you are one of the millions of people (and growing) who prefer wired headphones.
In 2016, Apple made a choice filled with “courage”: every phone in the iPhone 7 series lacked a headphone jack. Since then, no iPhones have had a 3.5mm port, and most flagship Android smartphones today also lack one. It was, and still is, one of the most divisive decisions ever in the smartphone world. With that in mind, Nothing’s April Fool’s joke for 2025 will either elicit a chuckle or genuine anger, depending on where you fall in the headphone jack debate.
Today, Nothing is “launching” a new set of wired headphones, cheekily called Nothing Ear (3.5mm). This is a play on the company’s line of wireless Ear products, including the well-reviewed Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear A from 2024. To emphasize the joke, Nothing Ear (3.5mm) come with a 50-meter (~164 foot) cable and are designed to be “beautifully inconvenient.” Nothing has envisioned them as a set of Nothing Ear Open headphones with a very long cable attached.
To be clear, this is not a real product. Nothing will not sell these. However, that’s where the sting comes in: Nothing appears to think that the concept of wired headphones is so ridiculous, so completely off-base, that the very notion of it launching a set is grounds for a joke.
Audiophiles and music nerds — many of whom would fall into Nothing’s target demographic — might be a bit peeved at this. Despite the inconveniences present with wired headphones when compared to the best Bluetooth earbuds out there, cabled headphones almost always sound superior, never need to be charged, and are widely compatible with systems that lack Bluetooth. The wired headphones market is also growing, with young people, in particular, adopting them more and more for specific scenarios.
Funnily enough, Nothing might be shooting itself in the foot here. While this joke makes it clear that the company has no plans ever to launch wired headphones, it might be missing out by not doing so. Sure, it shouldn’t launch these headphones, as they clearly would be a dud, but a Nothing-branded set of wired headphones might be more of a hit than the company realizes.
What do you think? Has Nothing made a good joke here, or is this a situation in which the April Fool’s joke makes the joker look more like the fool than anything else? Let us know in the comments!
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